Author: Elodie

Author of heartwarming, hilarious and hot romcoms with grumpy book boyfriends that make me laugh out loud and heart-pounding, haunting romantic suspense novels that scare the crap out of me. All of them hard to put down... I will never lose my French accent. You can email me at: authorelodienowodazkij@gmail.com
writing

The music muse part deux…

Elodie

Not too long ago, I blogged about the music muse for my novel (you know the one I actually finished on Sunday *happy dance again* :D).

I still wonder if the inspiration is already there and the music just seems to fit or if the music actually inspires me.

I had one of those moments waiting for the train last week. I have the musical Mamma Mia in my ipod (yes I do :-)) and as I stood in the cold at around 7am, I listened to these particular songs:

and this one

Both of them always move me. No doubt about that.

However, this time I immersed myself in my WIP and it made “click”. The first song inspired me a scene or released it, it was a very tough one to write (and no it´s not a break-up per se 🙂 but gosh the emotions flowing through it ripped my heart apart).  The second one showed me I need to add some details about the mother/daughter relationship in the story.

Do you have one song which inspired YOU to add something to your story? or inspired you an entire scene? Do you listen to music when writing/editing?

writing

The two magical little words…

Elodie

Magic entered my living room today in many more ways than one….

But the one which stood out and that I want to shout to the world: I finished the first draft of my manuscript!

For the first time since I´ve been trying my hand at writing (and it has been a looooong ride), I put an end to a novel I am working on.

Bumps appeared on the road…days when I thought I would not succeed….many more when I had a blast typing away even if it was just for 30 minutes, stealing precious time from the places I could (aka my commuting).

Getting to the end is exhilarating and scary and everything in between.

I know it is not the end of the journey and my heart races when I think about the editing, beta-reading and all of the questions or challenges I may face in the process. Plus, there is the next book in my mind…

But for now…I am just living in the moment and enjoying it 🙂

Thank you all for supporting me and cheering me on along the way. I am one lucky lady!

Happy Friday, reading, writing

Happy Friday #2 – The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and other stories…

Elodie

Last week, I started the Happy Friday feature and here comes round 2…Looking forward to know what made you happy this week!

This week’s reading

* The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: Beautiful! Though this is narrated in the 3rd person, I could feel with the main characters. The anxiety of Hadley resonated in me and talked to me in personal terms so I may be a bit partial but for a book to do this, the voice has to be strong. This story is not a simple love story; it is much more than this. It shows difficult family relationships and how love can show itself in the most unexpected places.  Two of my favourite quotes from the book:

  • “And for some reason, that was even worse. in the end, it’s not the changes that will break your heart; it’s that tug of familiarity“
  • “That she’d gadly curl up on the grass for him, make a bed out of the dirt?”

* The Hunger Games trilogy: Amazing! Heart-wrenching! This trilogy will stay in my mind for a long time. It shows the human emotions in such a raw manner, it magnifies them, it blew me away.

I started Cinder yesterday and I’m looking forward to get into the story…

A nice reminder for us writers 😀

Lucky 13s view on “Tough Time Trouble” and especially this part made me smile as it is such a great reminder! (even though I still dream :-))

Most of us will not be the writer who pours out their first book ever in a few weeks, considers drool-ridden offers from 10 agents, has their book go to auction for over half a million dollars, and snags a movie deal as icing on the cake. Those writers are still human. None of these things gives them the ability to poop sunshine or pee rainbows.

A song

I revealed my first name on Wednesday in my Road Trip Wednesday post and I am overwhelmed by the comments this post received. THANK YOU 🙂 and if you wonder how to pronounce my first name…here is a little song from the 80’s


Others:

  • WIP progress: I am almost at 58k…but the moment which made me smile the most had to be writing a steamy scene while commuting and feeling my face getting flushed
  • ChangeWriteNow: I am feeling quite giddy since I did much better than last week. I am falling into a routine, making it somewhat easier and my team is just great! (thank you ladies)

What made YOU happy this week?

Have a wonderful weekend everybody 😀

personal, writing

Pssshhhh…Top secret :-)

Elodie

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:

                         If you couldn’t use your own name, what would your pseudonym or penname be?

Nothing fancy, nothing funny…I could actually use the pseudonym “Commutinggirl”which is the one I chose for this blog and twitter…:-)

For me, this topic  actually brings up another question: when will I stop using a pseudonym? I don’t know if you noticed but I’m not out of the writers’ closet yet. No, really my name is not commutinggirl 🙂 

Only a few selected friends, my hubby and some members of my family know that I write (and you of course :-)). I don’t want it to become a big deal at work and maybe I am afraid to jinx it. I have decided that if when I get an agent, I will  let my bosses know and then I can be somewhat out in the open.

This is a scary thought…be still my heart be still… because really by not using my real name I am mainly protecting myself, my current pseudonym resembles a security blanket if you will, or the teddy bear you may still have from your childhood, the one you could tell your problems to without worrying about being judged or laughed at. So my current pseudonym is both a shield and a necessity at the moment.

In the meantime, I thought I could at least give you my first name, to you who help me, support me and make me laugh on the interwebs. Thank you sooo much! I did not know the writing/reading/blogging/tweeting community could be so nice!

Once you find out what my last name is, you may actually tell me to use my maid name or a pseudonym (I mean hubby has a very long Ukrainian name with a weeeird spelling, lol)

So I’m taking a big breath and … : Hi *waves* I’m Elodie, nice to meet you!

Now I’m curious: what would be YOUR pseudonym or when did you come out as a writer?

reading

My list of books for January 2012 :-)

Elodie

As you may already know, I commute. When I am annoyed because I´m tired or because Deutsche Bahn fails me (really, even in Germany trains are late or no shows), I try to remember that this commuting time is actually “me” time. I use it to write and to read. I usually have plenty of time to dive into several novels in one week.

Here is the list of books I am planning to read this month (actually I have already read 4 of them :-))

Young Adult


 Divergent, Catching Jordan, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Hunger Games Trilogy (I am totally late on that one :-)) and Cinder I have already read Divergent, Catching Jordan and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and loved all of them 🙂 Great reading month so far! I reviewed Catching Jordan and Divergent in this post.

Historical Fiction

Le Testament D´Olympe (as there is no summary on Goodreads, I translated the blurb from amazon.fr: In the middle of the 18th , two sisters have lost touch with each other. One, serious and resigned, is sent to a convent and becomes teacher in a castle. The other, seeking freedom at all costs, succeeds in going to Paris with the Duke of Richelieu. She dreams of theater but Richelieu gives her to Louis XV who installs her in Versailles). A brilliant destiny opens its door for her…until a tragic end)

I also already read another romantic suspense from Karen Rose…

So that´s my plan for January…

What books are YOU reading this month?

Happy Friday, reading, writing

Happy Friday: I fell in love with my kindle and other love stories…

Elodie

Welcome to Happy Friday!

Alison spoke about finding the silver lining and it stuck with me…I try to see the positive in life, in people, in little things and while I have been called “sunshine” at work (yes I’m talking to you lovely co-workers), it is not always easy to do so and I do sometimes fail miserably. And that’s where Happy Friday comes in. On most Fridays, from now on I will share some writing/reading/blogging stories that made me smile. Today’s special: love stories. Oh and I’d love to hear in the comments what made YOU happy this week!

My fingertips touched its screen and I knew it was right

Do you remember when I wondered if I should get a kindle? I blogged about it, I asked Twitter about it…Hubby kept on telling me that I should (I think the amount of books in our apartment may have play a role) I decided to get one and guess what? I am in love with it! It’s small, it’s light (a definite plus during my commute), it can hold thousands of books. I am also not the definition of patience…Being able to get a book in a matter of seconds? *happy dance*. I will not give up on paperbacks and hardcovers, I love them dearly but the kindle has now a place in my heart too…

My heart melted a litte: Kreative Award!!! 🙂

Yesterday, I just received the Kreative Blogger Award from Jenny 🙂 I am still so happy about this. Thank you again! I also shared 10 things you might not have known about me and passed on the award to 6 wonderful bloggers.

You had me at hello: Divergent & Catching Jordan

 This book really blew me away and it was hard to catch my breath after reading it. The first words that came to my mind were “WOW” and “AMAZING”. After awhile, I was able to put into more words the magic it created for me and the main reason lays in the raw human emotions Veronica instilled throughout the novel. I felt with the characters, they were close to me as if I could touch them…Cannot wait for the sequel (my full review and summary on Goodreads)

You know the happy feelings you sometimes get after meeting somebody for the first time? Before you start overanalyzing every little word and gestures? Well that’s how I felt about Catching Jordan: the happy butterflies. I never played football, don’t really understand it (and yes I still watched the Superbowl while I lived in the US :-)) However, I was tall in junior high and high school until boys started to get their growth spurt. I reached 5’10 quite fast and maybe I identified with Jordan for that reason or maybe it was just that I enjoyed the interaction she had with the football team or maybe because I developed a crush on Henri and Carter…Seriously, Carter is awesome! (summary and my full-fledged review on  Goodreads)

Bonus smiles:

  • ChangeWriteNow update: I am proud to be the team captain of the wonderful International Women of Mystery, who are great motivators…The first week is almost up, it overall went quite well (apart from some water stories :-))
  • WIP update: A new twist appeared out of nowhere and I reached 54k 🙂 YAY!
  • Upcoming blogfest I will be taking part of: In February, Oasis for YA is organizing That’s YAmore Blogfest 🙂
  • All the comments on my blog!: really it made my week I’ll be replying to each and every one of them over the week-end but in the mean time, feel yourself hugged (if you don’t like hugs a handshake is on its way)

Have a wonderful week-end everybody! I’ll be back on Monday with my To Be Read pile of January 🙂 But before you go, I’d love to hear: what made you happy this week?

personal

OMG OMG OMG: Kreativ Blogger Award!

Elodie

*Throws confetti in the air*

*Does the happy dance*

*Keeps on bothering hubby who is playing the PS3 to tell him* (he is totally not paying attention by the way :-))

Jenny  just gave me a Kreativ Blogger Award today *hugs Jenny* and OMG I am so excited!

As part of receiving this award, I have to (1):  Share 10 things about myself that readers might find interesting, and (2) nominate 6 others for the blog award.  Here we go:

10 things about me:

  1. I already have one non-fiction book published
  2. I love romantic movies, zombie movies, scary movies, horror movies, funny movies, teen movies, serious movies, historic movies, old movies (I do love movies)
  3. I watch too many TV shows (Desperate Housewives, Fringe, How I met your mother, The Simpsons, Friends, Buffy, Dawson´s creek, Beverly Hills – the old school kind, Degrassi – the old school kind, Two and an half men, Cold Case)
  4. I used to write fanfiction
  5. I have a crush on Jon Stewart (so does my hubby)
  6. While living in the US, I did watch Lifetime TV quite often (yes I did :-))
  7. I am an anxious person (even though most people cannot tell)
  8. I speak French, English, German, a tad of Spanish and I know the basics of Russian
  9. I am a fan of the Klitchko brothers (really have you seen them?)
  10. I have two Master´s (one from the US and one from Germany). I loved school! Yes I am a nerd 🙂

And now the 6 bloggers I´d like to pass this award too (and gosh that is the difficult part, you guys are great!) If they are not already published, believe me they will be soon 🙂

  1. Peggy Eddleman: Peggy was one of the first blog I followed. She always has these amazing cookies and in terms of inspiration: wow!
  2. Katy Upperman: Katy is taking a short blog-cation but really you have enough wonderful posts to get you through her well-deserved time off! She has tons of great & honest YA reviews and her posts are just always so…”warm-hearted” (that´s the only word I could come up with here)
  3. Sarah Enni: Sarah has great YA reviews/recommendations. She also has a lot of posts which just make me smile. Plus she loves Nintendo games!
  4. Kate Hart: One of Kate´s latest post was so inspirational and the rest of her blog is well quite amazing as well!
  5. Kerri Maniscalco and her Write Eat Repeat blog: First of all it´s a beautiful blog. She manages to also have beautifully written posts which can lift you up, make you smile, make you think or just give  you lots of useful information on YA books and writing 🙂
  6. Tarah Dunn: Tarah has a lot of original content and features. I find her blog different and very interesting!

Again, there are many more I´d like to nominate, I´ll probably do a blogroll at some point!

Thanks again Jenny. It warms my heart to know people enjoy my posts!

writing

Dreaming of a writing retreat…

Elodie

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:
Describe your dream writing retreat. Where would you go? Who and what would you bring?
I was talking about this with my hubby not too long ago…so it’s quite a timely post 🙂
I currently write in the train while I commute or on the week-ends at home but if I could, I would fly to the US and hide myself there:
 I would book myself a room in a Bed and Breakfast or a little place close to the sea.  I would only bring my laptop and my kindle. I would go for long walks on “Singing beach”, listen to the sand under my feet and feel the salty breeze on my face. I would sit next to the window or in a little coffee shop and write.
 
Why would I go there you may wonder?
 
I fell in love with that area when now-hubby and I went for a romantic week-end in Sandwich, MA in a great Bed and Breakfast (I can only recommend it: Isaiah Jones Bed and Breakfast).
 
Plus, my WIP takes place in Manchester-By-The Sea 🙂
 
What would be YOUR dream writing retreat?
 
 
 
personal, reading, writing

2012 – Goals, resolutions…and shooting for the stars

Elodie

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you, your family and loved ones. Wishing you happiness, love, success, health and wonderful moments to come in 2012…

I rolled into 2012 with hubby and his family, champagne, good food and lots of laughs…and as I checked my emails in the early hours, I saw that I won a contest! Yay 🙂 I am going to receive a copy (autographed copy!!!) of Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi! Thank you so much Beth!!!! It has been on my TBR pile and I´m so excited about this…

I like the fresh start feeling of a New Year, not the “everything-is-erased-and-I-am-a-new-person” but “I-learned-a-lot-from-you-2011-and-I-am-ready-for-some-changes-in-2012″…On top of learning from the past, one should also never forget to reach for the stars and to dream. So here are my 2012 goals and resolutions!

Writing-related

  • Finish the first draft of my WIP
  • Edit it and make it ready for submission
  • Query said-WIP and find wonderful agent who had desired my manuscript without knowing it, who falls helplessly in love with it and helps me to take it to yet another level…Wonderful agent then sells it to great publishing house and I become part of the class of 2014.
  • Start working on my second novel
  • Establish regular contact with the wonderful people I might swap manuscripts with in the future 🙂 (yes Tarah, Heather and Hannah, I´m talking about you…:-))

Reading-related

  • I am not setting myself a goal of books to read per year because I know I have my commuting time which allows me to read, a lot.
  • However, I will make better use of Goodreads.com and will write more reviews about the books I read (on there and on here).

Other

I joined the Change, Write, Now challenge. It´s not really about the competition, it´s more about the support we will give each other in reaching our goals. I will update you from times to times on how this is going for me 🙂 Part of these resolutions concern:

  • Stepping away from the computer and my cell phone…from times to times…
  • Spend more quality time with hubby (he also says to be nicer to him but it´s wishful thinking cos I´m already super lovely  :-))
  • Become more organized so that I can give myself the gift of time
  • Cut down on some bad habits and pick up some good ones (including working out more often)

In 2012, I will also continue to update my blog regularly and I look forward to “seeing” you on the blogosphere or on Twitter 🙂 because you are awesome! Cheers to you!

Did you set yourself some goals for 2012?

reading, ya

Class of 2011: YA Superlatives blogfest – Best in Show

Elodie

Katy Upperman, Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott and Alison Miller had the great idea to organize the  CLASS OF 2011: YA SUPERLATIVES BLOGFEST! Don´t hesitate to check their blogs for all the links…

For this feature “Best in show”, I am proud to introduce: A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Die for Me by Amy Plum, The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper, Passion by Lauren Kate, The Duff by Kody Keplinger…

 

Favorite Cover – A Beautiful Dark

Cutest Couple – Sean and Puck from The Scorpio Races, I mean they´re just adorable and when he kisses her wrist awwww….

Most Likely to Make You Miss Your Bedtime (The book you just couldn’t put down!):  I did miss my bedtime many many times because of several books (YA and non YA). For this one, I chose the latest read which caused my hubby to turn around several times grunting at me: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter.

Best Repeat Performance (Your favorite sequel or follow-up.):  Passion by Lauren Kate. Even though I am a tad disappointed with this sequel, I gotta love the time travel…

Romance Most Worthy of an Ice Bath: Kate and Vincent from Die For Me (with a runner-up: Treygan and Yara from Tangled Tides). Kate and Vincent have that all forbidden love going on while Treygan and Yara, well, let´s put it that way: they may not kiss right away but they still put the heat on 🙂

Pair Most Likely to Stay Best Friends Till They’re 80: Again, Sean and Puck. They understand each other with a look and they have the same goals in life.

Breakout Novel (Favorite Book by a Debut Author): Here it is a toss-up between Die for me by Amy Plum and Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper (I reduced it to 2 which is quite amazing if you ask me :-)). I really enjoyed the characters in Die for Me including the secondary ones, it made me laugh and I loved that it was set in Paris… Tangled Tides just made dive into a different world and one it was hard to leave when the book ended.

Best Old-Timer (Your favorite read of the year, published BEFORE 2011.): The DUFF by Kody Keplinger…

Most Pleasant Surprise (The best book you didn’t think you’d like, but totally did.): The Goddess Test. I read some negative reviews about it and I have to say I did not expect an exact re-telling of the Greek mythology.  Maybe, that´s what allowed me to let myself really enjoy this book. Even though certain parts made me go “whaaat?”, my most common reactions ended up with “awww”

Most Creative Use of a Love Triangle: Tangled Tides…I don´t want to give any spoilers but let´s just say it was refreshing!